This album is a masterpiece: it is surely one of the best prog metal works I've ever listened to. The whole sound is very clean, the accuracy of the production is unbelievable, the volume levels are homogeneous, compositions are top quality and well balanced, the lyrics deal with reincarnation and physics.

This seventh studio release for Britain's "best progressive metal" band Threshold, entitled Critical Mass, without a doubt places then among the ranks of Dream Theater and Andromeda as far as musicianship, technicality and overall power. Setting them aside from their counterparts is their ambient electronic drum patterns/samples, gritty and yet soaring vocals (Andrew McDermott) and the wall of guitar sound backed by two guitarists (Karl Bloom and Nick Midson) instead of the typical one. Critical Mass features catchy songs that will have you singing over and over again after five or six listens due to the repetitive nature of the song structures. Straight ahead guitar riffing, atmospheric string arrangements (by Richard West), and equally aggressive and technical guitar licks and solos (Karl Groom) is the glue that hold this album together. The heavy and soft balance of each song captures the true epic and adventurous nature of the growing progressive metal camp. The only semi-low point on Critical Mass would be Avalon, the second to last song before the massive and diverse Critical Mass (Pts. 1-3) at the end clocking in at over thirteen minutes. It features a composition taken directly from their 2001 album Hypothetical, only in a different key and with a different synthesizer preset scattering through the arpeggios. The entire song (Avalon) reminds me of Dream Theater's Anna Lee from their Falling into Infinity album. Furthermore, other bits and pieces of Critical Mass remind me of that album just with more aggression and power. Lastly, Threshold isn't fully about technicality and is more interested in delivering firm.